Sunday, October 19, 2003

Interview: Mark Simmons

Mark Simmons leads a secret life. He has quite a few skeletons (mostly of Civil War soldiers) in his closet. He hangs around with werewolves and voodoo types. He has bloodthirsty friends. Surprisingly, he wants everyone to know about it.

Simmons, who has been general manager and program director at public radio station KEDM for about 10 years, can not only be found on the airwaves, but on bookshelves as well. His latest novel, "Dead On My Feet," was released by Baen Books earlier this year and brings his half-vampire character Chris Cséjthe home to Monroe.

Simmons, tired of seeing every story set in New York or Los Angeles, wanted to offer a different view, but he admits, initially, to having second thoughts about bringing vampire clans and ghouls of all sorts to town.

"Whenever you set something in familiar territory, it helps ground the story," he said. "But there's also the external aspect of people wanting to think that you mean something or you're saying something about the real place. Whenever an author writes something, there are always friends and acquaintances who try to figure out if they're in the book."

Simmons assures local folks that none of them appear in the book, though the name of one prominent local restaurateur is mentioned. He admits to including some friends, but no one from our neck of the woods.

Then there are some of the events of the book, which include a white supremacist group - from up north, no less - in a battle against long-dead Civil War soldiers (Union and Confederate alike) who are protecting their country, and a corporation with a killer virus bent on world domination. Those were other reasons he chose not to use real places and faces.

"Sometimes people will misunderstand things you're trying to do, especially humor," Simmons said. "I was thinking, if somebody skims this, they're going to think, `well, here comes another Yankee, writing another story to make fun of us.' If I made fun of anything, I did make fun of the fact that our life here is kind of quiet."

That quiet life is part of what initially drew Simmons to Monroe. He worked at radio stations in southeastern Kansas and the Kansas City area in Missouri before turning to public radio. He had a choice between accepting a position as operations manager and program director at KEDM or one in Bridgeport, Conn.

"It was a tough decision," he said. "But it was so beautiful down here, and what impressed me was the strength of the arts."

A year after joining KEDM, Simmons also took on the duties of general manager, and he's now an adjunct instructor in mass communications at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. All of which leaves little time for writing, but he still manages to churn out books, if at a bit slower pace.

Simmons thinks one of the things that attracts readers to his books is the strange blend of genres. His "Dreamland Chronicles" trilogy layers a fantasy tale on a hard science fiction framework, while the Cséjthe books blend fantasy and horror with a touch of science fiction thrown in. But all of the books have a common element - humor.

"For balancing humor and horror, I admire Hitchcock for what he was able to do," Simmons said. "He can make you believe in some scary situations, but still make you laugh."

Simmons said he likes to think that his books achieve that same kind of balance. He wants them to be funny, but he also wants readers to take the story seriously. His publisher for the Cséjthe books thinks he's achieved that goal. Toni Weisskopf, executive editor of Baen Books, said several people had recommended Simmons' work to them before they read "One Foot in the Grave."

"Once we read it, we enjoyed Mark's storytelling and his wry, allusive sense of humor," Weisskopf said. "Mark's hero has to walk the fine line between what's wrong and right, and it's rare these days to have an author who knows where the line is drawn, let alone can deal with moral decisions with such a light touch. Simmons manages it with flair."

While the books are funny, Simmons doesn't want people to get the idea that they are for kids. They draw on legends and history, which are often bloody. He said he'd classify them PG-13 with the movie ratings system.

"There are worse things you'll see on TV on most given nights, but it's not `Bunnicula' or `The Monster Patrol,'" he said. "There is violence and there are bad things that happen to some of the people in these books. The most horrific stuff is actual history."

Simmons, though he says he's not a fan of vampire stories himself, said he does try to stick with the conventions of the genre. He began writing the stories as a way to have a little fun with "the genre that will not stay dead," but he also has respect for the conventions. So sunlight, holy symbols, garlic, all of the usual suspects play a big role in his books.

"If it's convention, it's like being on the road and staying between the lines," he said. "But it's seeing how far you can go and still stay between the lines."

That, he says, earns him some fans from the community of vampire followers. Much like his poking fun at fantasy and science fiction have earned him fans among those genres.

"I'm true to the rules, and yet, we all have a little bit of a `Mystery Science Theater 3000' attitude after a while," he said. "How many times can we go back to the coffin and tell the same story over again without it just being old?"

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About Me

I am a veteran entertainment writer with a love of hard rock and heavy metal. I've written music reviews, columns and feature stories for several newspapers, Web sites and a national wire service. I've run Hall of the Mountain King in various places and incarnations since 1997.